Will the tablet defeat the mobile phone?
The iPad has received rave reviews from around the world and many people are planning to enhance their mobile communication experience by investing in an iPad. When Apple first released the iPad, it was a novelty that everyone wanted, but with the launch of the iPad 2, the tablet has become the most popular electronic device in the world today. This has made some people wonder if the tablet will finally topple mobile from the position of being the most useful communication and electronic device of all time. Here’s an idea why the tablet, any tablet, won’t be able to do it.
It is expensive:
Mobile is many things for many people. Some use it to communicate, others to entertain, and others for data consumption. While all of these categories of people exist, a large portion of people still use the phone for simple ‘take call, end call’ usability, and would not feel comfortable paying such a ridiculous amount for this service. So unless the tablet market doesn’t see a huge price cut like the touch phone market did, it’s hard to think that the tablet will bring the phone down.
It is bulky:
There was a time when people did not buy a mobile because it was bulky, which resulted in small and elegant mobile phones. Of course, since the mobile has more uses, functions and services, the average size of a mobile phone has increased, but it is not close to the size of an average tablet, which can be compared to a square brick. So unless they don’t present a full-featured, mobile phone-sized tablet, the tablet doesn’t offer much competition to the mobile phone.
It is a daily expense:
Even if tablet makers are yelling from the rooftops about how they have one lakh or two lakh apps, one must understand that using these apps would require a GRPS connection once or a GPRS connection forever. While the GPRS and even 3G connection is becoming predominant in the early markets, these are still some markets that are happy with prepaid plans and have to invest in a 3G or even GPRS connection. This takes some of the usability factor out of the tablet and makes the costs almost illogical.
These are the three important reasons why the tablet will not defeat the mobile phone for at least some time.
